6 Must-Know Online Marketing Trends Of 2016

Each New Year brings some changes in the marketing industry and its techniques.

These changes are either ignored or get adopted by marketers, and early adopters get an edge over the competition who are destined to lag further and further behind.

The uptake of new technology is faster than ever before, which means access to your audience is quicker than ever too. All you need to do is target them with a powerful digital marketing strategy that will engage them in unique ways.

2016 appears to be a great year for all the online businesses out there who are in the race to stay ahead of the curve by adopting these new and effective trends in online marketing, with the goal of making campaigns more effective.

Here are six online marketing trends that your business needs to know in 2016;

1. Video is the rising star

YouTube still receives a massive amount of hits per day and as of November 2015, Facebook received 8 billion video views daily.

These two facts alone prove how many online users love watching videos. Plenty of studies also show that web content that includes video has higher engagement rates compared to content that only consist of plain text.

It’s recommended you find ways to present information to your audience through the use of entertaining videos. Trying to rank these videos on the results pages can also drive a significant amount of traffic to your website.

2. Content remarketing

Content remarketing is all about tagging those visitors on your site who have read your content but didn’t become a lead. Many marketing leaders believe that remarketing works very well.

We have all been writing blogs, e-books, articles, and e-mails, but the trick is to make them effective and capture the visitors contact information, and this is where content remarketing steps in. This gives you a golden chance to get back to the people who are interested in what you have to offer.

You need to give them a quality experience with something unique and new while they are engaging with your content, and then remarket ads to them in an attempt to close the deal.

Your effective piece of content could be the reminder that sends them back to your site and initiates a buy.

3. Revolution of social media advertising

Social Media took the marketing industry by storm as a platform where you can directly hit a large number of your target audience members. Because of the endless benefits of social media marketing it will soon become a requirement to pay for advertising on every social platform.

People around the globe depend on social media for everything, even before buying. they share or check social profiles about the the purchase.

More social networks will start charging for traffic, and as social media networks adjust their algorithms, the only way brands can ensure they generate a decent amount of traffic is through advertising.

For example, Facebook was once easy to leverage; all you had to do was post a status update with a link to your fan page or personal page. Within minutes, all of your fans and friends would see your links and the traffic would flow in.

Now you’re encouraged to boost your post if you want to get the maximum amount of traffic. Even if you have 100,000 fans on Facebook, the only way to get the majority of them to see your content is to pay for visibility.

This video reveals some cool facts about emerging social media trends.

4. Dominance of mobile over desktop

2015 was a big year for mobile – not only did Google announce that mobile traffic finally overtook desktop traffic in 10 different countries, it was also the year they released the “Mobilegeddon” algorithm update to phase out sites not optimized for mobile.

But apparently, you don’t have to have an optimized desktop site in addition to a mobile version – according to Google, a mobile-only site with no desktop counterpart is perfectly acceptable. This alone won’t be enough to drive down desktop traffic, but it’s clear what side of the fence Google’s on; they’re banking on desktop traffic fading away, meaning the smart money rests on mobile-focused online marketing.

We carry our smartphones everywhere and every single social media platform has got an app for mobiles. It’s like walking around with a portable desktop, you can access your e-mails whenever you want to, or just search for any news. Marketing is no longer limited to time or place with mobile apps like Instagram and Snapchat.

It was never this fun and easy before. Watch this video for some cool infographics on mobile marketing trends:

5. The emergence of wearable technology

The rise of digital communication and adoption of modern technology has made everyone smarter and more aware. Consumers are showing more independence using digital platforms than ever before. People are searching for health-related information and making decisions related to their own health. We as digital marketers should take advantage of that.

This is a great opportunity to integrate such needs into apps and technologies for your consumers. Target your audience by giving them solutions through your innovations.

Apple has created an app which is named Health kit. Users can now set goals and track their progress through a single dashboard. There is even an app called Pacer, which allows you to track and monitor your dog’s sleeping patterns and eating routines.

While not quite to the level of virtual reality, wearable “smart” devices will start gaining more traction in 2016.

2015 saw the unveiling of the Apple Watch, a first-generation smart watch, but more smart watches and similar wearable devices will start emerging next year. Such devices will change the landscape of local marketing, and will do more to blur the lines between “online” marketing and “real” marketing.

6. Increased paid advertisements

As the basic law of economics says the increase in demand automatically results in the increase in price, competition in online marketing has increased immensely these past few years.

2016 will become even more competitive for online marketers and will drive the prices for online advertising even higher. Realistically, online ads are pretty cheap, but the increases in price may drive some smaller companies out of the picture.

As you can see in the screenshot taken from the site Entrepreneur, you can clearly see the paid advertisment banners and side ads.

The success of Facebook’s paid ads has propelled its stock price from $20 per share in 2012 to $80 per share in May 2015. LinkedIn and Twitter ads have met with some success, prompting our survey respondents to consider them seriously in the coming year. Other social media platforms like Instagram, Pinterest, and others have ad opportunities in development. The potential of ads on these latter platforms remains untested, which in large part may be keeping advertisers at bay at this point.

Wrap Up

These six trends are not the only ones which will be ruling the world of online marketing; these are only the most significant ones. You never know when these trends become mainstream because every other day there are changes in the industry.

Obviously, some of these strategies and technologies are worth giving a try. The earlier you adopt, the more time you have to play the field and reap the benefits to the fullest.

About Jeff Bullas

He is the owner of jeffbullas.com. Forbes calls him a top influencer of Chief Marketing Officers and the world's top social marketing talent. Entrepreneur lists him among 50 online marketing influencers to watch. Inc.com has him on the list of 20 digital marketing experts to follow on Twitter. Oanalytica named him #1 Global Content Marketing Influencer. BizHUMM ranks him as the world's #1 business blogger. Learn More